Mormon Missions Have Lifelong Impact

SALT LAKE CITY —

Instantly recognizable and seemingly ubiquitous, Mormon
missionaries are hard to miss. In their neat business attire with
name tags and enthusiastic smiles, they are seen in neighborhoods
around the world.

While thousands of news
articles have been written over the years about missionaries and
their work, few people realize the impact their missions have on
the rest of their lives.

Returning home for Mormon
missionaries is more than picking up where they left off.
Circumstances and relationships at home may have changed — and the
missionary comes home a different person than the one who left two
years earlier.

“Generally, young people
who come back from their missions have changed in many significant
ways,” says Elder M. Russell Ballard, one of the Church’s Twelve
Apostles.

“They have spent up to two
years helping others, thinking outside of themselves, studying
scripture, learning a new language in many cases, finding out about
new cultures and having experiences that make them more
responsible, more caring and thoughtful human beings.”

He also believes that
missionary experience focuses and enhances the way a person
approaches life’s challenges and opportunities.

"Perhaps the most important
education a young person can get is in the mission field. They
learn to present themselves and to speak and relate to others. When
they go home they take these and other skills and attributes with
them, which help them move forward in their careers, their personal
and family relationships and in their service in the Church and the
community."

There are currently some
53,000 full-time missionaries serving in over 150 countries. That
means that around 25,000 missionaries return to their homes each
year, where they learn to serve in various positions in their
congregations, often becoming teachers and leaders.

"Missionary service across
our Church leads to a highly religiously educated membership, and
forms the backbone of future volunteer Church leadership and
service at every level," Elder Ballard said.

Many former Latter-day
Saint missionaries are recruited for government and business
positions that require a second language and a high degree of trust
and integrity.

Latter-day Saints who are
leaders in business and other fields often refer to their missions
as the place they learned hard work and self-reliance and came to
understand their own faith better.

Notwithstanding the
emphasis that many returned missionaries place on work, family and
Church service, their missions are usually not a distant
memory.

In the homes of many former
missionaries you will find flags and other reminders of the country
in which they served. When a news story or some other program on
television mentions their mission area, they may be immediately
drawn to the screen. The land and people of their missionary days
become part of who they are.

John Taylor, a former
mission president for the Church in Monterrey, Mexico, believes
that “returned missionaries also become lifelong unofficial
ambassadors for the nations where they served. And it won’t just be
encyclopedic knowledge they can talk with you about — they will
tell you with tears in their eyes how wonderful Peruvians are, or
Mongolians, or whatever people they served among.”

Over 53,000 young Mormon women and men serve as missionaries in over 150 countries. After their missions they return home to study, work, raise a family and pursue other interests.

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